Biglaw

Biglaw Firm Announces Market Bonuses Plus Special End Of The Year Bonuses

So why are some associates worried?

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The bonus scale that Cravath set last month is a generous end of the year bonus, particularly in a year where the Biglaw elite already bumped up associate salaries and gave out mid-year bonuses. Given the largess already showered upon them, most are grateful their firms feel the need to meet that standard. But one Biglaw firm has just announced that in addition to the (admittedly expected) end of the year bonuses, they are also offering special end of the year bonuses.

The firm in question is Cahill Gordon, and they’ve made a habit of coming over the top of the going market standard on bonuses by offering special bonuses. The bonus schedule is as follows:


According to the firm-wide memo, the special extra bonuses will range from $5,000 to $40,000. But multiple sources at the firm have reached out to Above the Law with concerns that this year’s memo has words like “discretionary” and “outstanding individual effort” as caveats to the extra cash when in years prior everybody got the special bonuses.

  • Extra bonuses are now gone as a standard thing and are entirely discretionary. People fear what this means in practice
  • Cahill bonuses. Appears special bonuses are reserved for high performers this year

Associates will have to wait until their annual reviews in January to find out exactly what their bonuses will look like.

(Read the full bonus memo on the next page.)

Please help us help you when it comes to bonus news at other firms. As soon as your firm’s bonus memo comes out, please email it to us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus”) or text us (646-820-8477). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.

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headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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